Blood and other body fluids are lost when a patient undergoes surgery, and many different containers have been invented for collecting said lost blood and other fluids. Some of the containers are designed to be disposed of while still containing the fluids therein, and other containers are designed to be emptied so that they can be reused. Other containers are designed to be emptied but not reused. Typically, a flexible hose extends from the patient's body to the collection device and the fluids are continually vacuumed into the collection device throughout the surgical procedure.
One of the most widely used fluid collection devices is a chest-drainage device known as the Pleur-Vac; it is made by Deknatel (a Pfizer company) and is the subject of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,018,224, 4,955,874, and others. The leading end of a first flexible hose extends from the patient's chest cavity to an inlet of the Pleur-Vac, and a second flexible hose or suction tube extends from an outlet of the unit to a source of negative Pressure; the unit is designed so that blood and pleural fluid collect in the device and cannot enter the suction tube. The device is also designed so that the fluids entering it are trapped in a labyrinth, and cannot be easily emptied therefrom without exposing the operator and others in the operating theater to the hazards of contact by splashing and aerosolization.
When the surgical procedure is completed, the Pleur-Vac is disconnected from the patient and the fluids collected therein may be safely and legally disposed of by introducing them into a sanitary sewer. However, the only known means of emptying the unit is to manually and alternately rotate it so that the fluids may escape the labyrinth and flow therefrom under the influence of gravity. Thus the person charged with this task, and others, are exposed to contact.
OSHA regulations require that blood, pleural fluids, and other body fluids be handled in such a manner that the handlers and those in the vicinity of the handlers are not exposed to such fluids or aerosols thereof, and recommend that the fluids be carefully introduced to the sanitary sewer at or near the point of generation. The only known and present method of emptying the units probably violates those regulations. Therefore, the device has been traditionally disposed of without attempting to empty the bio-hazardous body fluids contained therein.
Disposal of the Pleur-Vac, or other drainage collection units of the same general type, while fluids are still held therewithin is not recommended for several reasons. On-site, as well as off-site transportation of the Pleuro-Vac requires many handlings. Every handling of the unit during the transportation process to its final point of disposal greatly increases the risk, to handlers and the public, of exposure to its contents. Further, medical waste incinerators are not designed to process liquids.
Thus, the present inventor has identified a need for a device capable of safely emptying containers having hazardous fluids therein, but the prior art when considered as a whole in accordance with the requirements of law at the time the present invention was made neither taught nor suggested to those of ordinary skill in the pertinent art how such a device could be provided.